View source for Anarchism in Russia

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'''Anarchism in Russia''' developed out of the [[Narodniks|populist]] and [[Russian nihilist movement|nihilist movement]]s' dissatisfaction with the [[Government reforms of Alexander II of Russia|government reforms]] of the time.

The first Russian to identify himself as an anarchist was the [[revolutionary socialism|revolutionary socialist]] [[Mikhail Bakunin]], who became a founding figure of the modern anarchist movement within the [[International Workingmen's Association]] (IWA). In the context of the [[Hague Congress (1872)|split]] within the IWA between the [[Marxism|Marxists]] and the anarchists, the Russian [[Land and Liberty (Russia)|Land and Liberty]] organization also split between a [[Black Repartition|Marxist faction]] that supported political struggle and an [[Narodnaya Volya|anarchist faction]] that supported "[[propaganda of the deed]]", the latter of which went on to orchestrate the [[Assassination of Alexander II of Russia|assassination]] of [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]].

Specifically anarchist groups such as the [[Chernoe Znamia|Black Banner]] began to emerge at the turn of the 20th century, culminating with the anarchist participation in the Russian Revolutions of [[1905 Russian Revolution|1905]] and [[Russian Revolution|1917]]. Though initially supportive of the [[Bolsheviks]], many anarchists turned against them in the wake of the [[treaty of Brest-Litovsk]], launching a "[[Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks|Third Revolution]]" against the government with the intention of restoring [[soviet democracy]]. But this attempted revolution was crushed by 1921, definitively ending with the suppression of the [[Kronstadt rebellion]] and the defeat of the [[Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine]].

The anarchist movement lived on during the time of the [[Soviet Union]] in small pockets, largely within the [[Gulag]] where anarchist political prisoners were sent, but by the late 1930s its old guard had either fled into exile, died or disappeared during the [[Great Purge]]. Following a number of uprisings in the wake of the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]], [[anarcho-communism|libertarian communism]] began to reconstitute itself within the [[Soviet dissidents|dissident]] [[Human rights movement in the Soviet Union|human rights movement]], and by the time of the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the anarchist movement had re-emerged onto the public sphere. In the modern day, anarchists make up a part of the [[Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia|opposition movement]] to the government of [[Vladimir Putin]].

==History==
===Bakunin and the anarchists' exile===
[[File:Bakunin Nadar.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mikhail Bakunin]]]]
In 1848, on his return to [[Paris]], [[Mikhail Bakunin]] published a fiery tirade against [[Russia]], which caused his expulsion from [[France]]. The [[Revolutions of 1848|revolutionary movement of 1848]] gave him the opportunity to join a [[Radical politics|radical]] [[Political campaign|campaign]] of democratic agitation, and for his participation in the [[May Uprising in Dresden]] of 1849 he was arrested and condemned to death. The [[Capital punishment|death sentence]], however, was [[Commutation (law)|commuted]] to [[life imprisonment]], and he was eventually handed over to the Russian authorities, by whom he was imprisoned and finally sent to Eastern [[Siberia]] in 1857.

Bakunin received permission to move to the [[Amur Oblast|Amur]] region, where he started collaborating with his relative General Count [[Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky]], who had been [[Governor]] of Eastern Siberia for ten years. When Muravyov was removed from his position, Bakunin lost his stipend. He succeeded in escaping, probably with the collusion of the authorities and made his way through [[Japan]] and the [[United States]] to [[England]] in 1861. He spent the rest of his life in exile in [[Western Europe]], principally in [[Switzerland]].
[[File:Older Nechayev.jpg|thumb|100px|right|[[Sergey Nechayev]]]]
In January 1869, [[Sergey Nechayev]] spread false rumors of his arrest in [[Saint Petersburg]], then left for [[Moscow]] before heading abroad. In [[Geneva]], he pretended to be a representative of a revolutionary committee who had fled from the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]], and he won the confidence of revolutionary-in-exile [[Mikhail Bakunin]] and his friend [[Nikolay Ogarev]].

Bakunin played a prominent part in developing and elaborating the theory of [[anarchism]] and in leading the anarchist movement. He left a deep imprint on the movement of the Russian "revolutionary commoners" of the 1870s.

In 1873, [[Peter Kropotkin]] was arrested and imprisoned, but escaped in 1876 and went to [[England]], moving after a short stay to Switzerland, where he joined the [[Jura Federation]]. In 1877 he went to [[Paris]], where he helped to start the anarchist movement there. He returned to Switzerland in 1878, where he edited a revolutionary newspaper for the Jura Federation called ''Le Révolté'', subsequently also publishing various revolutionary pamphlets.

===Nihilist movement===
{{Main|Russian nihilist movement}}
[[File:Aleksandr Ulyanov (3x4 cropped).jpg|left|thumb|100px|[[Aleksandr Ulyanov]]]]
After an assassination attempt, Count [[Mikhail Loris-Melikov|Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov]] was appointed the head of the Supreme Executive Commission and given extraordinary powers to fight the revolutionaries. Loris-Melikov's proposals called for some form of parliamentary body, and the Emperor [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] seemed to agree; these plans were never realized as of March 13 (March 1 [[Old Style and New Style dates|Old Style]]), 1881, Alexander was assassinated: while driving on one of the central streets of St. Petersburg, near the [[Winter Palace]], he was mortally wounded by hand-made grenades and died a few hours afterwards. The conspirators [[Nikolai Kibalchich]], [[Sophia Perovskaya]], [[Nikolai Rysakov]], [[Timofey Mikhailov]], and [[Andrei Zhelyabov]] were all arrested and sentenced to death. [[Hesya Helfman]] was sent to [[Siberia]]. The assassin was identified as [[Ignacy Hryniewiecki]] (Ignatei Grinevitski), who died during the attack.

===Tolstoyan movement===
{{Main|Tolstoyan movement}}
Although he did not call himself an anarchist, [[Leo Tolstoy]] (1828–1910) in his later writings formulated a philosophy that amounted to advocating resistance to the state, and influenced the worldwide development of anarchism as well as [[pacifism]] worldwide. In a series of books and articles, including ''What I Believe'' (1884)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tolstoy|first1=Lev Nikolayevich|author-link1=Leo Tolstoy|year=1885|title=What I Believe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHngxmyJKo8C|series=Cosimo Classics religion & spirituality|location=New York|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|publication-date=2007|isbn=9781602067226|access-date=14 November 2019|archive-date=15 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515141451/https://books.google.com/books?id=NHngxmyJKo8C|url-status=live}}</ref> ({{langx|ru|В чём моя вера?}}) and ''Christianity and Patriotism'' (1894),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tolstoy|first1=Lev Nikolayevich|author-link1=Leo Tolstoy|year=1894|chapter=Christianity and Patriotism|title=The Spiritual Works of Leo Tolstoy: A Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You, What I Believe, Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, The Gospel in Brief and more|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vn3yCwAAQBAJ|publisher=e-artnow|publication-date=2016|isbn=9788026852469|access-date=14 November 2019|archive-date=15 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515141451/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vn3yCwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> ({{langx|ru|Христианство и патриотизм}}) Tolstoy used the Christian gospels as a starting-point for an ideology that held violence as the ultimate evil.<ref name="Tolstoy">{{cite book|last1=Brock|first1=Peter|author-link1=Peter Brock (historian)|title=Freedom from War: Nonsectarian Pacifism 1814-1914|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmiPAAAAMAAJ|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|publication-date=1991|pages=185–220|isbn=9780802058836|access-date=14 November 2019|archive-date=15 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515141452/https://books.google.com/books?id=jmiPAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Tolstoy professed contempt for the private ownership of land, but his anarchism lay primarily in his view that the state exists essentially as an instrument of compulsory force, which he considered the antithesis of all religious teachings. He once wrote, "A man who unconditionally promises in advance to submit to laws which are made and will be made by men, by this very promise renounces Christianity."<ref name="Tolstoy"/>

In the 1880s Tolstoy's [[Anarcho-pacifism|pacifist anarchism]] gained a following in Russia. In the following decades the [[Tolstoyan movement]], which Tolstoy himself had not expected or encouraged, spread through Russia and to other countries. Resistance to war had particular meaning in Russia since Emperor Alexander II had implemented compulsory military service in 1874. From the 1880s into the early 20th century, an increasing number of young men refused military service on the basis of a Tolstoyan moral objection to war. Such actions moved Tolstoy, and he often participated in the defense of peaceful objectors in court.<ref name="Tolstoy"/>

Many people inspired by Tolstoy's version of Christian morality set up agricultural communes in various parts of Russia, pooling their income and producing their own food, shelter and goods. Tolstoy appreciated such efforts but sometimes criticized these groups for isolating themselves from the rest of the country, feeling that the communes did little to contribute to a worldwide peace movement.<ref name="Tolstoy"/>

Although Tolstoy's actions frequently diverged from the ideals he set for himself (for example, he owned a large estate), his followers continued to promote the Tolstoyan vision of world peace well after his death in 1910.<ref name="Tolstoy"/>

===Individualist anarchism===
{{Main|Individualist anarchism}}
[[Individualist anarchism]] was one of the three categories of anarchism in Russia, along with the more prominent [[anarcho-communism]] and [[anarcho-syndicalism]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|page=56}} The ranks of the Russian individualist anarchists were predominantly drawn from the [[intelligentsia]] and the [[working class]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|page=56}} For anarchist historian [[Paul Avrich]] "The two leading exponents of individualist anarchism, both based in [[Moscow]], were [[Alexei Borovoi|Aleksei Alekseevich Borovoi]] and [[Lev Chernyi]] (Pavel Dmitrievich Turchaninov). From [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], they inherited the desire for a complete overturn of all values accepted by bourgeois society- political, moral, and cultural. Furthermore, strongly influenced by [[Max Stirner]] and [[Benjamin Tucker]], the German and American theorists of individualist anarchism, they demanded the total liberation of the human personality from the fetters of organized society."{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|page=56}}

Some Russian individualist anarchists "found the ultimate expression of their social alienation in violence and crime, others attached themselves to avant-garde literary and artistic circles, but the majority remained [[Philosophical anarchism|"philosophical" anarchists]] who conducted animated parlor discussions and elaborated their individualist theories in ponderous journals and books."{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|page=56}}

[[Lev Chernyi]] was an important individualist anarchist involved in resistance against the rise to power of the Bolshevik Party. He adhered mainly to Stirner and the ideas of [[Benjamin Tucker]]. In 1907, he published a book entitled ''Associational Anarchism'', in which he advocated the "free association of independent individuals."<ref name="chernyi">{{Cite web|url=http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/libertarians.html|title=Prominent Anarchists and Left-Libertarians|access-date=2010-10-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028163000/http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/libertarians.html|archive-date=2010-10-28|url-status=dead}}</ref> On his return from Siberia in 1917 he enjoyed great popularity among Moscow workers as a lecturer. Chernyi was also Secretary of the [[Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups]], which was formed in March 1917.<ref name="chernyi"/> He was an advocate "for the seizure of private homes",<ref name="chernyi"/> which was an activity seen by the anarchists after the October revolution as direct expropriation on the bourgeoisie. He died after being accused of participation in an episode in which this group bombed the headquarters of the Moscow Committee of the Communist Party. Although most likely not being really involved in the bombing, he might have died of torture.<ref name="chernyi"/>

Chernyi advocated a [[Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzschean]] [[Transvaluation of values|overthrow of the values]] of bourgeois Russian society, and rejected the voluntary [[Obshchina|communes]] of [[Anarcho-communism|anarcho-communist]] [[Peter Kropotkin]] as a threat to the freedom of the individual.<ref name=Avrich180>{{Harvnb|Avrich|1971|p=180}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Avrich|1971|p=254}}</ref><ref name=aa>{{cite book|last=Chernyi|first=Lev|title=Novoe Napravlenie v Anarkhizme: Asosiatsionnii Anarkhism|orig-year=1907|edition=Moscow; 2nd|year=1923|publisher=New York}}</ref> Scholars including Avrich and Allan Antliff have interpreted this vision of society to have been greatly influenced by the [[Individualist anarchism|individualist anarchists]] [[Max Stirner]], and [[Benjamin Tucker]].<ref name=sub>{{cite journal|last=Antliff|first=Allan|year=2007|title=Anarchy, Power, and Poststructuralism|journal=SubStance|volume=36|issue=113|pages=56–66|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/substance/v036/36.2antliff.pdf|access-date=2008-03-10|doi=10.1353/sub.2007.0026|s2cid=146156609|archive-date=2016-04-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408210526/https://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=%2Fjournals%2Fsubstance%2Fv036%2F36.2antliff.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Subsequent to the book's publication, Chernyi was imprisoned in [[Siberia]] under the Russian [[Tsar|Czarist]] regime for his revolutionary activities.<ref name=match>{{cite journal|last=Phillips|first=Terry|date=Fall 1984|journal=The Match!|url=http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/ChernyiLev.htm|issue=79|access-date=2008-03-10|title=Lev Chernyi|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080211173334/http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/ChernyiLev.htm|archive-date=2008-02-11}}</ref>

On the other hand, [[Alexei Borovoi]] (1876?-1936),<ref name="quod.lib.umich.edu">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=labadie;cc=labadie;view=toc;idno=2917084.0001.001 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201152645/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=labadie;cc=labadie;view=toc;idno=2917084.0001.001 |date=2014-02-01 }} "Anarchism and Law." on Anarchism Pamphlets in the Labadie Collection</ref> was a professor of philosophy at Moscow University, "a gifted orator and the author of numerous books, pamphlets, and articles which attempted to reconcile individualist anarchism with the doctrines of syndicallism".<ref name="chernyi"/> He wrote among other theoretical works, ''Anarkhizm'' in 1918 just after the October revolution<ref name="chernyi"/> and ''Anarchism and Law''.<ref name="quod.lib.umich.edu"/>

===The Doukhobors===
{{Main|Doukhobors}}
[[File:Chertkov with tolstoy.jpg|thumb|100px|left|[[Leo Tolstoy]] and [[Vladimir Chertkov]].]]
The origin of the Doukhobors dates back to 16th- and 17th-century [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Muscovy]]. The Doukhobors ("Spirit Wrestlers") are a radical [[Christianity|Christian]] sect who maintained a belief in [[pacifism]] and a communal lifestyle while rejecting secular government. In 1899, the most zealous third (about 7,400) Doukhobors fled repression in [[Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]] and migrated to [[Canada]], mostly in the provinces of [[Saskatchewan]] and [[British Columbia]]. The funds for the trip were paid for by the [[Quakers|Religious Society of Friends]] and the Russian novelist [[Leo Tolstoy]]. Peter Kropotkin suggested Canada to Tolstoy as a safe-haven for the Doukhobors because while on a speaking tour across Canada, Kropotkin observed the religious tolerance experienced by the [[Mennonites]].

===Revolution of 1905===
{{Main|1905 Russian Revolution}}
[[File:Chernoe Znamia Meeting Minsk.png|thumb|Members of ''[[Chernoe Znamia]]'']]
The first anarchist groups to attract a significant following of Russian workers or peasants, were the [[Anarcho-communism|anarcho-communist]] [[Chernoe Znamia|Chernoe-Znamia]] groups, founded in [[Białystok]] in 1903. They drew their support mainly from the impoverished and persecuted working-class Jews of the "[[Pale of Settlement|Pale]]"-the places on the Western borders of the Russian Empire where Jews were "allowed" to live. The Chernoe Znamia made their first attack in 1904, when Nisan Farber, a devoted member of the group, stabbed a strike-breaking industrialist on the Jewish Day of Atonement. The Chernoe Znamia, [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|Left SRs]] and [[Zionism|Zionists]] of Bialystock congregated inside a forest to decide their next action. At the end of the meeting the shouts of "Long Live the Social Revolution" and "Hail Anarchy" attracted the police to the secret meeting. Violence ensued, leaving many revolutionaries arrested or wounded. In vengeance, Nisan Farber threw a homemade bomb at a police station, killing himself and injuring many. He quickly became a Revolutionary Martyr to the Anarchists, and when [[Bloody Sunday (1905)|Bloody Sunday]] broke out in St Petersburg his actions began to be imitated by the rest of the Chernoe Znamias. Obtaining weapons was the first objective. Police stations, gun shops and arsenals were raided and their stock stolen. Bomb labs were set up and money gleaned from expropriations went to buying more weapons from [[Vienna]]. Bialystock became a warzone, virtually everyday an Anarchist attack or a Police repression. [[Dnipro|Ekaterinoslav]], [[Odessa]], [[Warsaw]] and [[Baku]] all became witnesses to more and more gunpoint hold-ups and tense shootouts. Sticks of dynamite were thrown into factories or mansions of the most loathed capitalists. Workers were encouraged to overthrow their bosses and manage the factory for themselves. Workers and peasants throughout the Empire took this advice to heart and sporadic uprisings in the remote countryside became a common sight. The Western borderlands in particular - the cities of [[Russia]]n [[Poland]], [[Ukraine]] and [[Lithuania]] flared up in anger and hatred.

The Revolution in the Pale reached a bloody climax in November and December 1905 with the bombing of the [[Hotel Bristol]] in [[Warsaw]] and the Cafe Libman in [[Odessa]]. After the suppression of the December Uprising in Moscow, the Anarchists retreated for a while, but soon returned to the Revolution. Even the small towns and villages of the countryside had their own Anarchist fighting groups. But the tide was turning against the revolutionaries. In 1907, the Tsarist Minister [[Pyotr Stolypin|Stolypin]] set about his new "pacification" program. Police received more arms, orders and reinforcements to raid Anarchist centres. The police would track the Anarchists to their headquarters and then strike swiftly and brutally. The Anarchists were tried by court martial in which preliminary investigation was waived, verdicts delivered within 2 days and sentences executed immediately. Rather than succumb to the ignominy of arrest, many Anarchists preferred suicide when cornered. Those that were caught would usually deliver a rousing speech on Justice and Anarchy before they were executed, in the manner of [[Ravachol]] and [[Émile Henry (anarchist)|Émile Henry]]. By 1909 most of the Anarchists were either dead, exiled or in jail. Anarchism was not to resurface in Russia until 1917.

===February Revolution===
{{Main|February Revolution|July Days}}
In 1917, Peter Kropotkin returned to [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]], where he helped [[Alexander Kerensky]]'s [[Russian Provisional Government]] to formulate policies. He curtailed his activity when the [[Bolsheviks]] came to power.

Following the abdication of [[Nicholas II of Russia|Czar Nicholas II]] in February 1917 and the subsequent creation of a Provisional Government, many Russian anarchists joined the Bolsheviks in campaigning for further revolution. Since the repression after the [[1905 Russian Revolution|Revolution of 1905]], new anarchist organizations had been slowly and quietly growing in Russia, and in 1917 saw a new opportunity to end state power.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|pp=470-471}}

Though within the next year they would come to consider the Bolsheviks traitors to the socialist cause, urban anarchist groups initially saw Lenin and his comrades as allies in the fight against capitalist oppression. Understanding the need for widespread support in his quest for Communism, Lenin often deliberately appealed to anarchist sentiments in the eight months between the February and October Revolutions.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|pp=471-472}} Many optimistic anarchists interpreted Lenin's slogan of “All Power to the Soviets!” as the potential for a Russia run by autonomous collectives without the burden of central authority.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|p=471}} Lenin also described the triumph of Communism as the eventual “[[withering away of the state]].”{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|pp=343-344}}
All this time, however, anarchists remained wary of the Bolsheviks. [[Mikhail Bakunin]], the hero of Russian anarchism, had expressed skepticism toward the scientific, excessively rational nature of Marxism. He and his followers preferred a more instinctive form of revolution.{{Sfn|Avrich|1966|p=382}} One of them, Bill Shatov, described the anarchists as “the romanticists of the Revolution.”{{Sfn|Avrich|1968|pp=296-297}} Their eagerness to get the ball rolling became apparent during the [[July Days]], in which Petrograd soldiers, sailors and workers revolted in an attempt to claim power for the [[Petrograd Soviet]]. While this was not an anarchist-driven event, the anarchists of Petrograd played a large role in inciting the people of the city to action. In any case, Lenin was not amused by the revolt and instructed those involved to quiet down until he told them otherwise.{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|pp=345-346}}

In spite of some tension between the groups, the anarchists remained largely supportive of Lenin right up to the October Revolution. Several anarchists participated in the overthrow of the Provisional Government, and even the Military Revolutionary Committee that orchestrated the coup.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|p=472}}

===October Revolution===
{{Main|October Revolution}}
At first it seemed to some Anarchists the revolution could inaugurate the stateless society they had long dreamed of. On these terms, some Bolshevik-Anarchist alliances were made. In Moscow, the most perilous and critical tasks during the October Revolution fell upon the Anarchist Regiment, led by the old libertarians, and it was they who dislodged the Whites from the Kremlin, the Metropole and other defenses. In addition, it was the Anarchist sailor who led the attack on the Constituent Assembly in October 1917. For a while, the Anarchists rejoiced, elated at the thought of the new age that Russia had won.

Bolshevik-anarchist relations soon turned sour as the various anarchist groups realized that the Bolsheviks were not interested in pluralism, but rather a centralized one-party rule. A few prominent anarchist figures such as Bill Shatov and Yuda Roshchin, despite their disappointment, encouraged anarchists to cooperate with the Bolsheviks in the present conflict with the hope that there would be time to negotiate.{{Sfn|Avrich|1968|pp=296-297}} But most anarchists became disillusioned quite quickly with their supposed Bolshevik allies, who took over the soviets and placed them under Communist control.

The sense of betrayal came to a head in March 1918, when Lenin signed the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk|Brest-Litovsk]] peace treaty with Germany. Though the Bolshevik leaders claimed that the treaty was necessary to allow the revolution to progress, anarchists widely saw it as an excessive compromise which counteracted the idea of international revolution.{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|pp=348-349}} The Bolsheviks had begun to see the anarchists as a legitimate threat and associated criminality such as [[robberies]], [[expropriations]] and [[murders]] with anarchist associations. Subsequently, the [[Council of People's Commissars]] (Sovnarkom) decided to liquidate criminal recklessness which was associated with anarchists and disarm all anarchist groups in the face of their militancy.{{sfn|Goodwin|2010|p=48}} After months of increasing anarchist resistance and dwindling Bolshevik patience, the Communist government decisively split with their libertarian agitators in the spring of 1918. In Moscow and Petrograd the newly formed [[Cheka]] was sent in to disband all anarchist organizations, and largely succeeded.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|pp=472-473}}

On the night of April 12, 1918, the [[Cheka]] raided 26 anarchist centres in [[Moscow]], including the [[Lenkom Theatre#House of Anarchy|House of Anarchy]], the headquarters of the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups. A fierce battle raged on Malaia Dimitrovka Street. About 40 anarchists were killed or wounded, and approximately 500 were imprisoned. A dozen Cheka agents had also been killed in the fighting. Anarchists joined [[Mensheviks]] and Left Socialist revolutionaries in boycotting the 1918 May Day celebrations. Bolshevik repressions of anarchist organizations [[Explosion in Leontievsky Lane|prompted a series of assassination attempts on the Russian Communist leadership]].{{sfn|Grossman|2020|p=230}}

By this time some belligerent anarchist dissenters armed themselves and formed groups of so-called “[[Black Guards]]” that continued to fight Communist power on a small scale as the Civil War began.{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|pp=349-350}} The urban anarchist movement, however, was dead.

===Civil War===
{{Main|Russian Civil War}}
[[File:Anarchy newspaper.jpg|thumb|324px|''Anarchy'' (Newspaper of the [[Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups]]) Sept. 29 1919]]
The anthropologist [[Eric Wolf]] asserts that peasants in rebellion are "natural" anarchists.<ref>Wolf, Eric. “Peasants and Revolution,” Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Studies. Jack Goldstone, ed. 2002.</ref> After initially looking favorably upon the Bolsheviks for their proposed land reforms, by 1918 peasants largely came to despise the new government as it became increasingly centralized and exploitative in its dealings with the rural population. Marxist-Leninists had never given the peasants great credit, and with the Civil War against the [[White movement|White Armies]] underway, the [[Red Army]] primarily used peasant villages as suppliers of grain, which it “requisitioned,” or in other words, seized by force.<ref name="civilwar">Vladimir N. Brovkin, Behind the Front Lines of the Civil War: Political Parties and Social Movements in Russia, 1918-1922. Princeton, 1994, p. 127-62, 300.</ref>

Abused equally by the Red and invading White armies, large groups of peasants, as well as Red Army deserters, formed “Green” armies that resisted the Reds and Whites alike. These forces had no grand political agenda like their enemies, for the most part they simply wanted to stop being harassed and be allowed to govern themselves. Though the Green Armies have largely been ignored by history (and by Soviet historians in particular), they constituted a formidable force and a major threat to Red victory in the Civil War. Even after the party declared the Civil War over in 1920, the Red-Green war persisted for some time.<ref name="civilwar"/>

Red Army generals noted that in many regions peasant rebellions were heavily influenced by anarchist leaders and ideas.<ref name="civilwar"/><ref>Orlando Figes, "The Red Army and Mass Mobilization during the Russian Civil War 1918-1920," Past & Present, No. 129 (1990), p. 168-211.</ref> In Ukraine, the most notorious peasant rebel leader was an anarchist general named [[Nestor Makhno]]. Makhno had originally led his forces in collaboration with the Red Army against the Whites. In the region of Ukraine where his forces were stationed, Makhno oversaw the development of an autonomous system of government based on the productive coordination of communes. According to Peter Marshall, a historian of anarchism, "For more than a year, anarchists were in charge of a large territory, one of the few examples of anarchy in action on a large scale in modern history.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|p=473}}

Unsurprisingly, the Bolsheviks came to see Makhno's experiment in self-government as a threat in need of elimination, and in 1920 the Red Army sought to take control of Makhno's forces. They resisted, but the officers (not including Makhno himself) were arrested and executed by the end of 1920. Makhno continued to fight before going into exile in Paris the next year.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|pp=473-475}}

====Third Russian Revolution====
{{Main|Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks}}
[[File:Kronstadt attack.JPG|thumb|right|[[Red Army]] troops attack [[Kronstadt]].]]
The attempted [[Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks|Third Russian Revolution]] began in July 1918 with the assassination of the German Ambassador to the Soviet Union in order to prevent the signing of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. This was immediately followed by an artillery attack on the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] and the occupation of the telegraph and telephone buildings by the [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|Left SRs]] who sent out several manifestos appealing to the people to rise up against their oppressors and destroy the Bolshevik regime. But whilst this order was not followed by the people of Moscow, the peasants of South Russia responded vigorously to this call to arms. Bands of [[Chernoe Znamia]] and Beznachaly anarchist terrorists flared up as rapidly and violently as they had done in 1905. Anarchists in [[Rostov, Yaroslavl Oblast|Rostov]], [[Dnipro|Ekaterinoslav]] and [[Bryansk|Briansk]] broke into prisons to liberate the anarchist prisoners and issued fiery proclamations calling on the people to revolt against the Bolshevik regime. The Anarchist Battle Detachments attacked the [[White movement|Whites]], Reds and Germans alike. Many peasants joined the Revolution, attacking their enemies with pitchforks and sickles. Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Underground Anarchists were formed by Kazimir Kovalevich and Piotr Sobalev to be the shock troops of the Revolution, infiltrating Bolshevik ranks and striking when least expected. On 25 September 1919, the Underground Anarchists struck the Bolsheviks with the heaviest blow of the Revolution. The headquarters of the Moscow Committee of the Communist Party was blown up, killing 12 and injuring 55 Party members, including [[Nikolai Bukharin]] and Emilian Iaroslavskii. Spurred on by their apparent success, the Underground Anarchists proclaimed a new "era of dynamite" that would finally wipe away capitalism and the State. The Bolsheviks responded by initiating a new wave of mass arrests in which Kovalevich and Sobalev were the first to be shot. With their leaders dead and much of their organization in tatters, the remaining Underground Anarchists blew themselves up in their last battle with the Cheka, taking much of their safe house with them. Numerous attacks and assassinations occurred frequently until the Revolution finally petered out in 1922. Although the Revolution was mainly a Left SR initiative, it was the Anarchists who had the support of a greater number of the population and they participated in almost all of the attacks the Left SRs organized, and also many on completely their own initiative. The most celebrated figures of the [[Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks|Third Russian Revolution]], [[Lev Chernyi]] and [[Fanya Baron]] were both Anarchists.

===In exile===
[[File:Emma_Goldman_seated.jpg|thumb|right|[[Emma Goldman]], author of ''[[My Disillusionment in Russia]]''.]]
Following the suppression of the anarchist movement in Russia, a number of anarchists fled the country into exile, such as [[Emma Goldman]], [[Alexander Berkman]], [[Alexander Schapiro]], [[Volin]], [[Mark Mratchny]], [[Grigorii Maksimov]], [[Boris Yelensky]], [[Senya Fleshin]] and [[Mollie Steimer]], who went on to establish relief organizations which provided aid for anarchist political prisoners back in Russia.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=235-236}}

[[File:Portrait_de_Piotr_Archinov.jpg|thumb|left|[[Peter Arshinov]], co-founder of the [[platformism|platformist tendency]].]]
[[File:Voline_(sans_date_connue).jpg|thumb|left|[[Volin]], co-founder of the [[Synthesis anarchism|synthesis tendency]].]]
To the disillusioned Russian anarchist exiles, the experience of the Russian Revolution had fully justified Mikhail Bakunin's earlier declaration that "socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=237-238}} Russian anarchists living abroad began to openly attack the "new kings" of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]], criticising the NEP as a restoration of capitalism and comparing [[Vladimir Lenin]] to the Spanish inquisitor [[Tomás de Torquemada]], the Italian political philosopher [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] and the French revolutionary [[Maximilien Robespierre]]. They positioned themselves in opposition to the Bolshevik government, calling for the destruction of Russian state capitalism and its replacement with [[workers' self-management]] by [[factory committee]]s and [[workers' council|councils]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=238}} But while anarchist exiles were united in their criticisms of the Bolshevik government and their recognition that the Russian anarchist movement had collapsed due to its disorganization, their internal divisions remained, with the [[Anarcho-syndicalism|anarcho-syndicalists]] around [[Grigorii Maksimov]], [[Efim Yarchuk]] and [[Alexander Schapiro]] establishing ''The Workers' Way'' as their organ, while [[anarcho-communism|anarcho-communists]] around [[Peter Arshinov]] and [[Volin]] established ''The Anarchist Herald'' as their own.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=238-239}}

The anarcho-syndicalists looked to remedy the issue of anarchist disorganization through the foundation of a new international organization, culminating in the establishment of the [[IWA–AIT|International Workers' Association]] (IWA) in December 1922.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=239}} The IWA analyzed the events of the Russian Revolution as having been a project to build [[state socialism]] rather than [[revolutionary socialism]], called for the construction of [[trade union]]s to win short-term gains while building towards a [[general strike]] and declared their goal to be a [[social revolution]] that would abolish centralized states and replace them with a network of [[workers' council]]s.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=239-240}} Maxmioff later moved to the [[United States]], where he edited ''The Laborer's Voice'', a [[Russian language]] publication of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW).{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=247}}

[[File:Makhno_Berkman.jpg|thumb|right|[[Nestor Makhno]] and [[Alexander Berkman]], while in exile in [[Paris]] (1927).]]
Meanwhile, the anarcho-communists around the ''[[Dielo Truda|Workers' Cause]]'' journal began to develop the [[Platformism|platformist tendency]], calling for the construction of a tightly coordinated anarchist organization, which was supported chiefly by Peter Arshinov and [[Nestor Makhno]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=241}} This platform was criticized as authoritarian by a number of dissenting voices, including Voline, [[Senya Fleshin]] and [[Mollie Steimer]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=241-242}} Arshinov and Makhno's short-tempered response to these criticisms drew the ire of other Russian exiles such as [[Alexander Berkman]] and [[Emma Goldman]], who denounced them respectively as a "Bolshevik" and a "militarist",{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=242}} while also expressing a distaste with Fleshin and Steimer's factionalism.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=243-244}}

During the late 1920s, a number of anarchist exiles decided to return to Russia and appealed to the Soviet government for permission. With the aid of the [[Right Opposition]]ist [[Nikolai Bukharin]], Efim Iarchuk was permitted to return in 1925, after which he joined the Communist Party.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=245}} In 1930, Arshniov also returned to Russia under amnesty and joined the Communist Party, leaving ''Dielo Truda'' in the editorial hands of Grigorii Maksimov.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=242-243}} Under Maksimov, the publication took on a notable syndicalist stance while also offering a platform to other anarchist tendencies, becoming the Russian anarchist exiles' most important publication.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=247-248}} Maksimov attempted to bridge the divide between the anarcho-syndicalists and anarcho-communists, publishing a ''[https://libcom.org/library/my-social-credo-maximov social credo]'' that attempted to synthesise the two along the lines of [[Peter Kropotkin]]'s earlier works. Maksimov suggested the establishment of [[agricultural cooperative]]s and [[factory committee]]s that could oversee the improvement of conditions and reduction of working hours during the transition to [[communism]], the replacement of prisons with public welfare institutions and disbandment of standing armies in favor of a "people's militia", and the taking over of product distribution by a network of [[housing cooperative|housing]] and [[Consumers' co-operative|consumer cooperatives]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=248}} He also denounced the [[Communist International]] and claimed that the IWA was the true successor to the First International of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Mikhail Bakunin]], due to their adherence to the idea that "the liberation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves", condemning [[Centralisation|centralization]] as leading inevitably to [[bureaucracy]] - as evidenced by the events in Russia.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=248-249}} In his later years, Maksimov published his history of the Soviet Union ''[https://libcom.org/history/guillotine-work-gregori-maximov The Guillotine at Work]'' and edited the [https://libcom.org/library/political-philosophy-bakunin-scientific-anarchism-gp-maximoff collected works] of Mikhail Bakunin.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=249}}

The remnants of the Russian anarchist exiles began to wane during the 1930s, as their journals became less frequent and filled with republications of old texts, their activities mostly consisted of celebrating the anniversaries of past events and their criticisms became increasingly levelled at [[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Adolf Hitler]]. The events of the [[Spanish Revolution of 1936|Spanish Revolution]] briefly revived the exile movement, but after the defeat of the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]], the exiles largely ceased activity.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=246}} During this period a number of the exiled anarchist old guard began to die off, including Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman during the late 1930s, and Voline, Alexander Schapiro and Grigorii Maksimov in the wake of the [[Victory in Europe Day|Allied victory]] in [[World War II]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=246-247}} The surviving [[Abba Gordin]] had since shifted away from communism, publishing a critique of [[Marxism]] in 1940 that concluded it was an ideology of "a privileged class of politico-economic organisateurs" rather than of workers, and further characterized the Russian Revolution as a "managerial revolution". Gordin increasingly gravitated towards [[nationalism]], culminating in his adoption of [[Zionism]] and his eventual emigration to [[Israel]], where he would die in 1964.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=249-250}}

===In the Soviet Union===
====Under the NEP====
Following the suppression of the [[Kronstadt rebellion]], the Communist Party's [[10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|10th Congress]] implemented the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP), which put an end to [[war communism]] and transformed the [[Economy of the Soviet Union|Soviet economy]] into a form of [[state capitalism]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=234}} Many of the "Soviet anarchists" that had previously sought conciliation with the Bolshevik government quickly became disillusioned with the policies of the NEP, which they regarded as a step back from their revolutionary aims, and subsequently resigned from their posts in order to pursue scholarly activities.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=244-245}}

The Congress also instituted the suppression of any remaining opposition to Bolshevik rule, which [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|banned]] internal party factions such as the [[Workers' Opposition]] and ordered a [[Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|purge]] of anarchist and syndicalist elements.{{Sfn|McNeal|1974|pp=119-129}} Anarchists were rounded up by the [[Cheka]] and tried by a [[Revolutionary tribunal (Russia)|Revolutionary Tribunal]], with many either being sentenced to internal exile or sent to [[Gulag|concentration camps]], where they endured harsh living conditions.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=234}} Anarchist political prisoners in the [[Solovki prison camp]] protested their internment with a series of [[hunger strike]]s, some even committing [[self-immolation]], which led to their removal from the [[Solovetsky Islands]] and their dispersal to various other Gulags in the [[Ural (region)|Urals]] and [[Siberia]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=234-235}} Some key figures of the anarchist old guard began to die off during this period, including [[Peter Kropotkin]], [[Varlam Cherkezishvili]], [[Jan Wacław Machajski]] and [[Apollon Karelin]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=236}}

The Bolshevik government did allow some anarchist activity to continue peacefully through the 1920s. The bookshop owned by ''[[Golos Truda]]'' remained open and published [[Mikhail Bakunin]]'s collected works, the work of the Kropotkin Museum was allowed to continue without interference, and a number of prominent anarchists secured permission to publicly protest against the execution of the Italian American anarchists [[Sacco and Vanzetti|Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=237}}  However, by 1928 a factional dispute had broken out over control of the Kropotkin Museum, in spite of Kropotkin's widow Sofia's attempts to secure the museum's future,{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=243}} and the following year the establishments owned by ''[[Golos Truda]]'' were permanently closed down by the authorities.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=244}} The [[Tolstoyan movement]] was also forced to relocate its [[Life and Labor Commune]] to [[Siberia]], where a number of their members were arrested.{{Sfn|Solzhenitsyn|2007a|p=51}}

====Under Stalinism====
[[File:Victor_serge.jpg|thumb|right|[[Victor Serge]], [[libertarian socialism|libertarian socialist]] member of the [[Left Opposition]] to [[Stalinism]].]]
Following the [[Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|establishment]] of the [[Soviet Union]], [[Vladimir Lenin]] was left incapacitated by a stroke and a [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union#List of troikas|Troika]] made up of [[Lev Kamenev]], [[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Grigory Zinoviev]] assumed control of the state. The Troika government was briefly opposed by the [[council communism|council communists]] of the [[Workers Group of the Russian Communist Party|Workers' Group]], but they were swiftly expelled from the Communist Party and eventually repressed entirely.{{sfn|Avrich|1984|pp=1–29}} When [[Death and state funeral of Vladimir Lenin|Lenin died]] of his ailments, a power struggle broke out between the Communist Party's various factions: the [[Right Opposition|right-wing]] led by [[Nikolai Bukharin]], the centre led by the Troika and the [[Left Opposition|left-wing]] led by [[Leon Trotsky]].

When Stalin allied himself with the right-wing policy of [[socialism in one country]], the Troika broke up, with Kamenev and Zinoviev forming a "[[United Opposition (Soviet Union)|United Opposition]]" in coalition with the left-wing. The Opposition demanded [[Freedom of speech|freedom of expression]] within the party, called for an end to the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP), and proposed the [[Industrialization in the Soviet Union|rapid industrialization]] of the economy and a reduction of state [[bureaucracy]]. The "anarcho-Bolshevik" [[Victor Serge]] subsequently joined the Opposition upon his return to the country, but predicted its defeat at the hands of [[reactionary|reactionary forces]] within the party. The Opposition was defeated at the [[15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|15th Party Congress]], with many of its members being expelled from the party and forced into exile, where Serge became an outspoken critic of the authoritarian way that Stalin governed the country - describing the [[Government of the Soviet Union|Soviet government]] as "[[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]]". The anarcho-syndicalist [[Maksim Rayevsky]], who had previously edited ''[[Golos Truda]]'' and ''[[Burevestnik (1906)|Burevestnik]]'', was also arrested for publishing the Opposition's platform.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=244}}

With the Opposition purged, [[Joseph Stalin]] had completed his [[rise of Joseph Stalin|rise to power]]. He subsequently [[Great Break (USSR)|broke]] with the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP) and shifted the economy towards a [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|five-year plan]] of [[Industrialization in the Soviet Union|rapid industrialization]] and [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|forced collectivization]], marking the beginning of the [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)|Stalinist era]]. The introduction of [[totalitarianism]] in the Soviet Union brought a quick end to the anarchist activity that had been tolerated during the 1920s under the NEP, as a new wave of [[Political repression in the Soviet Union|political repression]] was unleashed, with many anarchists being arrested and internally exiled to [[Siberia]] and [[Central Asia]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=244}} While internally exiled in [[Tobolsk]], the anarchist Dmitri Venediktov was arrested on the charges of "Disseminating rumors about loans and dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime", and within three days was sentenced to [[Capital punishment in the Soviet Union|execution]] without appeal.{{Sfn|Solzhenitsyn|2007c|pp=348-349}}

[[File:Alexey_Borovoy.gif|thumb|left|[[Alexei Borovoi]], [[individualist anarchism|individualist anarchist]] victim of the [[Great Purge]].]]
During the [[Great Purge]], many that had participated in the Revolution were arrested and executed, including a number of [[Old Bolshevik]]s, [[Trotskyism|Trotskyists]] and anarchists. A number of members of the anarchist old guard such as [[Alexander Atabekian]], [[German Askarov]] and [[Alexei Borovoi]] were noted to have died during the Purge,{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=244}} with others such as [[Aron Baron]] disappearing upon their release from prison. Even Efim Iarchuk and [[Peter Arshinov]], who had both experienced a rapprochement with the Bolsheviks and returned to the Soviet Union, also disappeared during the Purge.{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|p=245}} By 1937, the [[Life and Labor Commune]] had been converted into a state-owned [[Kolkhoz|collective farm]], its members were arrested and sent to [[labor camp]]s, with their settlements disbanded entirely. And by 1938, the few remaining people that were maintaining the Kropotkin Museum had themselves become subject to repression, leading to the museum's closure following the death of [[Sophie Kropotkin|Sofia Kropotkin]].{{Sfn|Avrich|1971|pp=245-246}}

[[File:Gorlag_Uprising's_flag.png|thumb|right|Flag of the [[Norilsk uprising]].]]
But despite the elimination of the anarchist old guard during the Purge, anarchist activity continued at a reduced scale. A new generation of anarchists emerged within the Gulags, with some participating in a 15-day hunger strike at the Penalty Isolator in [[Yaroslavl]].{{Sfn|Solzhenitsyn|2007a|pp=473-474}} Following the Allied victory in [[World War II]], many POWs that were freed by the [[Red Army]] were subsequently met with deportation to Gulag camps in Siberia. There, a number of Marxist and anarchist POWs established the Democratic Movement of Northern Russia, which organized an uprising in 1947 that spread throughout several camps before being suppressed by the army.{{Sfn|Iztok|1980}} Anarchist tendencies subsequently spread throughout many of the Siberian camps, culminating in 1953 when the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]] brought with it a wave of [[List of uprisings in the Gulag|uprisings]], some of which included anarchist participation. The [[Norilsk uprising]], in particular, saw the active participation of a number of Ukrainian Makhnovists.{{Sfn|Iztok|1980}}

====During the Thaw====
[[File:Fabrike Radnicima - panoramio.jpg|thumb|right|"{{lang|sh|Fabrike radnicima}}" ("Factories to the workers") was the slogan of the Yugoslav [[socialist self-management]] system which inspired later-Soviet [[anarcho-communism|libertarian communists]]]]
The power struggle that followed in the wake of Stalin's death ended with the consolidation of control by [[Nikita Khrushchev]], who implemented a [[Khrushchev Thaw|reform program]] that relaxed [[Political repression in the Soviet Union|political repression]] and [[Censorship in the Soviet Union|censorship]], released millions of [[political prisoner]]s from the [[Gulag]] and instituted a [[de-Stalinization]] of Soviet society. A [[Soviet dissidents|dissident]] protest movement began to emerge in the public sphere for the first time in decades, with a number of [[anarcho-communism|libertarian communists]] inspired by [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavian]] [[socialist self-management]] developing [[anti-statism|anti-statist]] tendencies and some even going on to call themselves anarchists.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Offensive|last=Culturelle|title=Marginalité et débordements quotidiens en URSS|location=[[Paris]]|publisher=Collectif d'offensive culturelle|journal=Matin d'un Blues|issue=2|year=1978|language=fr|issn=0180-7722|oclc=473194987}}</ref>

Khrushchev launched a crackdown on the nascent anarchist movement, with many of the new generation ending up in Gulag camps, often under the charge of "[[Anti-Soviet agitation|anti-Soviet propaganda]]". Given that openly identifying as an anarchist was dangerous, some anarchists identified themselves with the emerging [[Human rights movement in the Soviet Union|human rights movement]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Émigré|title=Les anarchistes en URSS, lettre d'un émigré au CIRA|journal=Front Libertaire|issue=102|date=January 1979|location=[[Paris]]|publisher=Organisation révolutionnaire anarchiste|language=fr|issn=0154-4233|oclc=473173562}}</ref> Anarchists in Leningrad were arrested for providing aid to the dissident [[Yuri Galanskov]] and one anarchist dock worker was arrested for agitating among his colleagues.{{Sfn|Iztok|1980}}

====During the Era of Stagnation====
During the [[era of Stagnation]], a new group known as the "Left Opposition" was established by a collective of Leningrad students in 1978. Led by the [[libertarian socialism|libertarian socialist]], [[Alexander Skobov]], they established a commune in the city, which acted as a meeting place for left-wing Soviet dissidents, and published their own journal ''Perspektivy''.<ref name="Netchaev1">{{cite journal|first=Vadim|last=Netchaev|title=La plate forme de l'opposition de gauche|journal=[[Libération]]|date=April 1979|location=[[Paris]]|language=fr|issn=0335-1793|oclc=472874342}}</ref> The journal published articles by a number of different authors of various tendencies, including anarchist authors like [[Mikhail Bakunin]], [[Peter Kropotkin]] and [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]],{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|p=478}} as well as Marxist authors like [[Leon Trotsky]] and [[Herbert Marcuse]]. The ideas published in their programme were characterized as "[[Ultra-leftism|ultra-left]]", positioning itself against the Soviet state and in favor of [[freedom of association]] and the right to [[self-determination]]. Some more radical members of the group, inspired by the [[Red Army Faction]], even called for the use of armed struggle and illegalist methods against the state,<ref name="Netchaev2">{{cite journal|title=The leftist opposition|first=Vadim|last=Netchaev|journal=[[Debatte|Labour Focus on Eastern Europe]]|year=1979|issue=3|location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|issn=0141-7746|oclc=1150486275}}</ref> but its leaders Arkady Tsurkov and Alexander Skobov encouraged [[nonviolence]]. The group planned to organize a conference that would bring together leftist dissident groups from throughout the Union, but the planned conference was postponed by an [[orthodox Marxism|orthodox Marxist]] group and eventually called off entirely due to political repression preventing delegates from arriving. The commune was raided, their members followed and their leaders sentenced to years in the Gulag.<ref name="Netchaev1"/>

[[File:Anarchist_flag.svg|thumb|right|The red and black flag of [[anarcho-syndicalism]], which saw a resurgence in Russia during the 1980s.]]

As the Communist Party began to lose its grip on power, and in the face of rising [[nationalism]], Russian anarchists called for [[decentralization]] and [[federalism]] as a way forward, once again proposing [[Mikhail Bakunin]]'s earlier model for re-organising the region into a "loose federation of autonomous republics." But following the [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt]], during which members of the [[Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists]] (KAS) defended a barricade at the [[White House (Moscow)|White House]], the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] took effect and the [[Russia|Russian Federation]] was established.{{Sfn|Marshall|2008|p=478}}

===Russian Federation===
Contemporary anarchist groups in Russia include the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (KRAS-MAT) and the libertarian communist [[Autonomous Action]], both of which advocate direct action, strikes, and anti-Fascist actions. The [[Siberian Confederation of Labour]] connects anarcho-syndicalists across Russia. Between 800 and 1,000 Russians were estimated to be active anarchists in the early 2010s.<ref name="Ross2016">{{cite book|last=Ross|first=Cameron|title=Systemic and Non-Systemic Opposition in the Russian Federation: Civil Society Awakens?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPqqCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124|year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-04722-3|page=124|access-date=2017-07-04|archive-date=2021-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221131304/https://books.google.com/books?id=uPqqCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT124|url-status=live}} See also {{Cite book|last1=Бученков|first1=Д. Е|title=Анархисты в России в конце ХХ века|date=2009|isbn=978-5-397-00516-6|publisher=Либроком|location=Москва|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

[[Autonomous Action]] (Russian:Автономное действие) played a major role in the 2011-2013 Russian protest movement against the regime of [[Vladimir Putin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2013/11/06_a_5740213.shtml |access-date=22 July 2019 |title=Кто там хромает левой? |date=7 November 2013 |archive-date=22 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722062332/https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2013/11/06_a_5740213.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> In August 2013, at the XII Congress of Autonomous Action there was an intra-organizational conflict that grew into a split in the organization.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://avtonom.org/news/zayavlenie-moskovskoy-gruppy-avtonomnogo-deystviya-po-povodu-sayta-avtonominfo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209190403/https://avtonom.org/news/zayavlenie-moskovskoy-gruppy-avtonomnogo-deystviya-po-povodu-sayta-avtonominfo |archive-date=2019-12-09|title=Заявление московской группы Автономного Действия по поводу сайта "автоном-инфо"|date=23 August 2013|work=[[Autonomous Action]]}}</ref> For several months, two organizations were operating in Russia bearing the name "Autonomous Action" and standing on similar libertarian-communist positions. However, on October 27, 2013, the breakaway group adopted the name Autonomous Action (Social-Revolutionary) (ADSR).<ref name="26-27 октября 2013 года прошел внеочередной XIII(I) съезд организации Автономное Действие">{{Cite web|url=https://naroborona.info/2013/10/29/26-27-oktyabrya-2013-goda-proshel-vneocherednoj-xiii-i-s-ezd-organizatsii-avtonomnoe-dejstvie/|title=26—27 октября 2013 года прошел внеочередной XIII(I) съезд организации Автономное Действие|access-date=2021-02-16|archive-date=2019-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809184407/https://naroborona.info/2013/10/29/26-27-oktyabrya-2013-goda-proshel-vneocherednoj-xiii-i-s-ezd-organizatsii-avtonomnoe-dejstvie/|url-status=live}}</ref> (later this organization was renamed "[[People's Self-Defense (Russia)|People's Self-Defense]]"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://naroborona.info/organizatsiya/|title=Организация "Народная Самооборона"|access-date=2021-02-16|archive-date=2021-01-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112151710/https://naroborona.info/organizatsiya/|url-status=live}}</ref>)

On October 31, 2018, [[Arkhangelsk FSB office bombing|Mikhail Zhlobitsky]], a seventeen-year-old college student, committed a [[Suicide attack|suicide bombing]] against a local [[Federal Security Service|FSB]] headquarters in [[Arkhangelsk]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-teen-blows-himself-fsb-building-prompting-terrorism-investigation-n926681|title=Russia teen blows himself up in FSB building, prompting terrorism investigation n|work=NBC News|access-date=2018-11-27|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128010535/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-teen-blows-himself-fsb-building-prompting-terrorism-investigation-n926681|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/europe/bomb-russia-fsb.html|title=Bomb Explodes at Russian Security Agency, Wounding 3 Workers|work=The New York Times |date=31 October 2018 |access-date=2018-11-27|language=en|archive-date=2018-11-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127234455/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/europe/bomb-russia-fsb.html|url-status=live |last1=Nechepurenko |first1=Ivan }}</ref> In a social media message allegedly posted by Zholbitsky prior to the attack stated that he was an [[Anarcho-communism|anarcho-communist]] and carried out the attack against the FSB due to their persistent use of torture and evidence fabrication.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46043424|title=Teen blows himself up at Russia security HQ|date=2018-10-31|work=BBC News|access-date=2018-11-27|language=en-GB|archive-date=2018-12-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221063722/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46043424|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Russo-Ukrainian War ====
Anarchists have played a significant role in Russian opposition to the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 invasion of Ukraine]], including the [[Russian military commissariats attacks|2022 military commissariats arsons]]. [[The Insider (website)|''The Insider'']] has named the [[Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists]] "the most active 'subversive' force" in the country since the beginning of the invasion.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Этот поезд в огне: как российские партизаны поджигают военкоматы и пускают поезда под откос|url=https://theinsider.pro/politika/252389|access-date=2022-08-11|website=The Insider|language=ru|archive-date=2022-08-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810092620/https://theinsider.pro/politika/252389|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 19 April 2023, [[Dmitry Petrov (anarchist)|Dmitry Petrov]], one of the organisation's founders, was killed in the [[battle of Bakhmut]] while fighting for the [[Territorial Defense Forces (Ukraine)|Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Veniamin Volin |date=2023-05-20 |title=Ultra left-wing Russian activist who fought on the side of Ukraine killed in Bakhmut. His friend recalls how he ended up in Ukraine and what he fought for |url=https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/05/20/ultra-left-wing-russian-activist-who-fought-on-the-side-of-ukraine-killed-in-bakhmut-en |access-date=2023-06-17 |website=Novaya Gazeta Europe |archive-date=17 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230617233342/https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/05/20/ultra-left-wing-russian-activist-who-fought-on-the-side-of-ukraine-killed-in-bakhmut-en |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Notable anarchists==
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Peter Arshinov]]
*[[Anastasia Baburova]]
*[[Mikhail Bakunin]]
*[[Aida Basevich]]
*[[Alexei Borovoi]]
*[[Lev Chernyi]]
*[[Vladimir Chertkov]]
*[[Sam Dolgoff]]
*[[Vera Figner]]
*[[Aleksandr Ge]]
*[[Emma Goldman]]
*[[Juda Grossman]]
*[[Apollon Karelin]]
*[[Peter Kropotkin]]
*[[Anna Kuliscioff]]
*[[Anatoly Lamanov]]
*[[Nestor Makhno]]
*[[Grigorii Maksimov]]
*[[Sergey Nechayev]]
*[[Stepan Petrichenko]]
*[[Boris Pilnyak]]
*[[Dmitry Ivanovich Popov]]
*[[Victor Serge]]
*[[Leo Tolstoy]]
*[[Volin]]
{{div col end}}

==Organizations==
*[[Land and Liberty (Russia)|Land and Liberty]] (1876–1879)
*[[Narodnaya Volya|People's Will]] (1879–1887)
*[[Chernoe Znamia]] (1903–?)
*[[Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups]] (1917–1918)
*[[Black Guards]] (1917–1919)
*[[Universalists (Russia)|Universalists]] (1920–1921)
*Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (1988–1995)
*Siberian Confederation of Labour (1995–present)
*Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (1995–present)
*[[New Revolutionary Alternative]] (1996–2000)
*[[Autonomous Action]] (2002–present)
*[[People's Self-Defense (Russia)|People's Self-Defense]] (2013–present)
*[[Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists]] (2018–present)

==See also==
*[[:Category:Russian anarchists]]
*[[List of anarchist movements by region]]
*[[Anarchism in Belarus]]
*[[Anarchism in Mongolia]]
*[[Anarchism in Ukraine]]
*[[History of communism in the Soviet Union]]
*[[Kronstadt rebellion]]
*[[Makhnovshchina]]
*[[Platformism]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite journal|first=Paul|last=Avrich|author-link=Paul Avrich|title=Anarchism and Anti-Intellectualism in Russia|url=https://libcom.org/history/paul-avrich-anarchism-anti-intellectualism-russia|journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]|location=[[Philadelphia]]|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|volume=27|issue=3|year=1966|pages=381–90|doi=10.2307/2708592|issn=0022-5037|jstor=2708592|lccn=42051802|oclc=884607792|url-access=subscription}}
*{{cite journal|first=Paul|last=Avrich|author-link=Paul Avrich|title=The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution|url=https://libcom.org/library/anarchists-russian-revolution-paul-avrich|journal=[[The Russian Review]]|location=[[Hoboken, New Jersey]]|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|volume=26|issue=4|year=1967|pages=341–350|doi=10.2307/126893|issn=0036-0341|lccn=43016148|jstor=126893|oclc=473067959|url-access=subscription}}
*{{cite journal|first=Paul|last=Avrich|author-link=Paul Avrich|title=Russian Anarchists and the Civil War|url=https://libcom.org/library/russian-anarchists-civil-war-paul-avrich|journal=[[The Russian Review]]|location=[[Hoboken, New Jersey]]|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|volume=27|issue=3|year=1968|pages=296–306|doi=10.2307/127258|issn=0036-0341|lccn=43016148|jstor=127258|oclc=473067959|url-access=subscription}}
*{{cite book|last=Avrich|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Avrich|title=[[The Russian Anarchists]]|year=1971|orig-year=1967|location=[[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]]|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=0-691-00766-7|oclc=1154930946}}
*{{cite journal|title =Bolshevik Opposition to Lenin: G. T. Miasnikov and the Workers' Group|journal=[[The Russian Review]]|location=[[Hoboken, New Jersey]]|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|last=Avrich|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Avrich|year=1984|volume=43|issue=1|pages=1–29|url=https://libcom.org/library/bolshevik-opposition-lenin-paul-avrich|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503105035/https://libcom.org/library/bolshevik-opposition-lenin-paul-avrich|archive-date=3 May 2012|access-date=28 December 2017|issn=0036-0341|lccn=43016148|jstor=129715|doi=10.2307/129715|oclc=473067959|url-access=subscription}}
*{{cite journal|author=Iztok|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/iztok-on-anarchism-in-the-ussr-1921-1979|title=On anarchism in the USSR (1921–1979)|year=1980|journal= Iztok: Periodično spisanie|issue=1|location=[[Paris]]|publisher=Les Amitiés franco-bulgares|issn=0816-8172|oclc=664426218}}
*{{cite thesis|first=Joel Harold|last=Goldberg|title=The Anarchists View the Bolshevik Regime, 1918–1922|url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/999807417602121|type=[[PhD]]|location=[[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]]|publisher=[[University of Wisconsin]]|year=1973|oclc=36688081}}
*{{cite book |last1=Goodwin |first1=James |title=Confronting Dostoevsky's Demons: Anarchism and the Specter of Bakunin in Twentieth-century Russia |date=2010 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-1-4331-0883-9 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pun07YW3t7sC&dq=anarchists+criminal+elements+cheka+april&pg=PA48 |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last1=Grossman |first1=Henryk |title=Henryk Grossman Works, Volume 2: Political Writings |date=30 November 2020 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-43211-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJMMEAAAQBAJ&dq=makhno+cheka+assassination+attempt&pg=PA230 |language=en}}
*{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|title=[[Demanding the Impossible|Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism]]|location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Harper Perennial]]|orig-year=1992|year=2008|isbn=978-0-00-686245-1|oclc=1112925421}}
*{{cite book|first=Woodford|last=McClellan|title=Revolutionary exiles: the Russians in the First International and the Paris Commune|publisher=Cass|year=1979|isbn=0-203-98802-7|oclc=243606265|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SVA2EAAAQBAJ|access-date=11 September 2021}}
*{{cite book|last=McNeal|first=Robert|title=Resolutions and decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|date=1974|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=0-8020-2157-3|location=Toronto|oclc=1189903}}
*{{cite book|url=https://www.akpress.org/anarchyintheussr.html|last=Ruff|first=Philip|year=1991|title=Anarchy in the USSR|publisher=[[AK Press]]|location=[[London]]|isbn=9781872258065|oclc=36919582|access-date=2021-08-09|archive-date=2021-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809111118/https://www.akpress.org/anarchyintheussr.html|url-status=dead}}
*{{cite book|first=Aleksandr|last=Solzhenitsyn|author-link=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title=[[The Gulag Archipelago]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins|Harper & Row]]|year=2007a|orig-year=1974|translator-first=Thomas P.|translator-last=Whitney|volume=1|isbn=978-0061253713}}
*{{cite book|first=Aleksandr|last=Solzhenitsyn|author-link=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title=[[The Gulag Archipelago]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins|Harper & Row]]|year=2007b|orig-year=1974|translator-first=Thomas P.|translator-last=Whitney|volume=2|isbn=978-0061253720}}
*{{cite book|first=Aleksandr|last=Solzhenitsyn|author-link=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|title=[[The Gulag Archipelago]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins|Harper & Row]]|year=2007c|orig-year=1974|translator-first=Thomas P.|translator-last=Whitney|volume=3|isbn=978-0061253737}}
*{{cite book|last=Yarmolinsky|first=Avrahm|author-link=Avrahm Yarmolinsky|title=[[Road to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism]]|year=2014|orig-year=1957|location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]]|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-0691610412|oclc=890439998}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|author-link=Mikhail Bakunin|last=Bakunin|first=Mikhail|title=Statism and Anarchy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1990|isbn=0-521-36973-8}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Alexander Berkman|last=Berkman|first=Alexander|title=The Tragic Procession: Alexander Berkman and Russian Prisoner Aid|publisher=Kate Sharpley Library and Alexander Berkman Social Club|location=London and Berkeley|year=2010|isbn=978-1-873605-90-5}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Sam Dolgoff|last=Dolgoff|first=Sam|title=Bakunin on Anarchism|publisher=Black Rose Books|location=Montréal|year=1980|isbn=0-919619-06-1}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Volin|first=Vsevolod Mikhailovich|last=Eichenbaum|url=http://www.ditext.com/voline/unknown.html|title=The Unknown Revolution|year=1955|orig-year=1947|location=[[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[Libertarian Book Club and League|Libertarian Book Club]]|isbn=0919618251|oclc=792898216|translator-first=Holley|translator-last=Cantine|translator-link=Holley Cantine}}
*{{cite book|last=Kropotkin|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Kropotkin|url=http://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-terror-in-russia/view.php|title=The Terror in Russia|year=1909|location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]]|oclc=65565363}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Joseph Stalin|last=Stalin|first=Joseph|title=Anarchism or Socialism?|orig-year=1906/1907|publisher=[[Foreign Languages Publishing House (Soviet Union)|Foreign Languages Publishing House]]|year=1954|series=Collected Works|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/collected/volume1/index.htm |chapter=November 1901 - April 1907 |volume=1 |oclc=500187899|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1906/12/x01.htm}}
*{{cite book|last=Stepniak|first=Sergei|author-link=Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky|title=Underground Russia|url=http://nihilpress.subvert.info/under.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924062538/http://nihilpress.subvert.info/under.html|archive-date=24 September 2011|year=1883|location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|oclc=1068607124}}
*{{cite book|last=Tolstoy|first=Leo|author-link=Leo Tolstoy|title=[[What Is to Be Done? (Tolstoy book)|What Is to Be Done?]]|year=1899|orig-year=1877|location=[[New York City|New York]]|publisher=[[Crowell-Collier Publishing Company|Crowell]]|isbn=143449425X|oclc=320522431}}
*{{cite book|first=Yemelyan|last=Yaroslavsky|author-link=Yemelyan Yaroslavsky|title=History of Anarchism in Russia|location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Lawrence & Wishart]]|oclc=933005779}}

==External links==
*{{Anarchives|worldwidemovements/russiahis.html|History of Anarchism in Russia}}
*{{spunk|places/russia/|Russian anarchism}}
*[http://blackblocg.info/main-page Black Bloc] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130720142549/https://blackblocg.info/main-page |date=2013-07-20 }}
*[http://libcom.org/history/chronology-of-russian-anarchism-1921-1953 A chronology of Russian anarchism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090914085052/http://libcom.org/history/chronology-of-russian-anarchism-1921-1953 |date=2009-09-14 }} (1921–1953) from Libcom.org
*[http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xpnx76 Articles on Bolshevik repression of anarchists after 1917] from the Kate Sharpley Library
*[http://www.alpineanarchist.org/r_i_russia_english.html Anarchism in Russia] Interview with Mikhail Tsovma

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